The unsealed Snapchat lawsuit in New Mexico claims the company ignored child safety

On September 5, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a lawsuit against Snap. Torrez claimed that Snapchat has become a platform rife with sexual exploitation, child grooming and other dangerous behavior. That legal complaint was heavily redacted, but today Torrez announced in a press release that he has filed an unsealed complaint, which details how Snap allegedly knowingly created an environment where children were exposed to sexual predators.

The unredacted allegations included how Snap employees encountered 10,000 cases of sextortion every month. Yet the company never warned users because it didn’t want to “sow fear” among them. The statement also noted that Snap employees regularly ignored user reports related to grooming and extortion. An account with 75 separate reports remains active, and Snap declined to touch any of this content, citing a “disproportionate administrative fee.”

Snapchat’s disappearing messages have long been a draw to the platform, but the lawsuit claims they give users a false sense of security. Therefore, predators find it easier to request explicit images from users before extorting them for money, otherwise these images are sent to friends and family.

The unredacted complaint also notes that Snapchat’s Quick Add feature suggested adult strangers to minors, and that Snap Map also allows adults to find minors’ accounts. Quick Add even turned out to be dangerous, as a New Mexico man, Alejandro Marquez, had used it to lure and rape an 11-year-old girl, as stated in the complaint.

The complaint also alleges that Snap’s upper management routinely ignored former trust and security employees who pushed for additional and improved security mechanisms. CEO Evan Spiegel “prioritized design” over safety and even refused to retain offensive images for review and use by law enforcement as evidence. The company also failed to keep its database of child sex abuse images up to date, even reversing changes and deleting evidence of matches.

Even worse, predators using Snapchat have started creating a “Sextortion Handbook” to teach others how to target users in schools. Combined with the fact that 90 percent of all reports are ignored and 30 percent of victims never received any help from Snap, predators were essentially allowed to roam free.

That’s not the only issue New Mexico is dealing with. The complaint also accuses Snap of tolerating the sale of drugs and weapons. Drug dealers freely used the platform to advertise their wares without repercussions, while also gaining “a huge amount of subscribers.” Teenagers have even died after using drugs they bought after seeing them advertised on Snapchat.

As harmful as these dangers are, Snapchat makes it difficult for parents to monitor their children’s Snapchat use, as only 0.33 percent of teens have joined the Family Center. Snapchat also doesn’t actually verify a user’s age, allowing fake birthdays to pass inspection. This contradicts Snap’s claims that children under 13 are not allowed to use the app.

Based on these accusations, you could easily conclude that Snapchat is a dangerous platform for underage users. Lina Nealon, director of business and strategic initiatives at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said: “In my conversations with law enforcement, child safety experts, advocates, survivors and youth, I ask them what is the most dangerous app, and without doubt Snap is in the top two.”

In a statement Snap sent to Engadget last month when the lawsuit was filed, the company claimed to be diligently removing bad actors and cooperating with law enforcement. Today, Snap issued the following statement regarding the unsealed complaint:

“We designed Snapchat as a place to interact with a close circle of friends, with built-in safety bars, and made conscious design choices to make it difficult for strangers to discover minors on our service. We continue to evolve our safety mechanisms and policies, from deploying advanced technology to detect and block certain activities, to banning friendships from suspicious accounts, to working with law enforcement and government agencies, and much more.

We care deeply about our work here and it hurts us when bad actors abuse our service. We know that no one person, agency or company can advance this work alone. That’s why we’re working together across industry, government and law enforcement agencies to share information and build stronger defense mechanisms.”